Keble O’Reilly,
2nd-5th June, 7.30pm
Verdict: toe-tapping fun
With the UK rights to Rent having only just been released, director, Adam Baghdadi loses no time in mounting one of the first student productions of this dynamic rock musical. Set in Manhattan’s bohemian Alphabet City, the story follows a group of struggling young artists living under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Baghdadi and musical director Nick Pritchard have kept true to the time- and location-specific script in its entirety, and Rent features a staggering forty-two musical numbers.
The intimacy of the piece will be translated through the use of the performance space: the balcony of the Keble O’Reilly will host a six piece band as well as actors.
The vibrancy of the music is well matched in impressive choreography and use of space. The stage is usually busy with atmospheric tableaux, the juxtaposition of which nicely individualises rousing canonical sequences. Innovative costume design encapsulates the 90s grunge mood, with one principal’s fairy light hemmed Santa’s helper outfit one to watch in particular.
The all-singing, all-dancing, all-acting chorus are uniformly strong, lending support to the leads through their energy and enthusiasm, and heightening the power of the show-stopping numbers to spine-tingling crescendos. The principal cast members are equally impressive: described by Baghdadi as ‘bizarrely suited to their parts’, they are evidently having a ball onstage and their sense of fun is infectious. The musical’s pathos is well elicited by an endearing performance from James Carroll as Mark, while the humour, as well as dramatic poignancy, is well captured by Marcel Miller’s Collins, and Cassie Barraclough’s vulnerable Mimi.
Emily Gill-Heginbotham and Ed Pearce, as Maureen and Joanne respectively, are a delight to watch. Pearce’s nuanced, thoroughly watchable performance is excellently matched by bubbly Gill-Heginbotham’s bombastic gusto.
While Joanne’s ‘Tango: Maureen’ is certainly one to watch, as is the rousing act one finale ‘La Vie Boheme’ which promises to get those feet tapping and hands clapping. Its catchy hook and lyrics, coupled with its accompanying table-top character roll-call is the most accessible musical moment for the jazz-hands inexperienced of you in the audience, as Rent is an intensely music led piece.
Despite one shyed-away-from gay kiss, the musical’s message of tolerance and the excitement of youth is one relevant in particular to a student audience. It will be interesting to see the reaction to its first production in Oxford University, where ‘struggling young artists’ jostle to compete with the silver-spooned set. But a really good musical well done can transport its audience away from the theatre, and the stresses of Oxford living, to a glossy, glamorous escape, and one with more dance routines than you can shake a stick at.
